Wither With Me

CHAPTER 21 - OUTBREAK

Desmond wanted to sprint towards the safety of daylight as fast as his legs allowed him to, but the woman he was pulling at kept resisting.

"L-Let go...!! What do you mean...!!? We can't leave them behind...!!" shouted Nora.

He couldn't help but notice how much her behavior had changed since he initially found her a couple hours ago. By pure chance, cornered in a dark room, wrecked by nerves and anxiety. Even when he offered her a helping hand, it took her a while to even dare to murmur her own name.

And there she was, willing to charge into an ongoing outbreak without a care in the world. Whatever it was that made her into a crying mess, it surely wasn't the shamblers.

"You said you were going to help them...!! Why are we running!? Why aren't they coming with you!?" she kept making questions.

"I-I... I c-couldn't reach them...! There were s-shamblers in the way...!" an obvious lie, but he couldn't possibly tell her that he almost shat his pants and ran away upon facing William. "They are cooperating with the rest of my people down there! T-They'll find an alternate way out! W-We need to g-go!" he said.

In reality, the "shamblers in the way" thing was a lie back then, but not anymore.

There were only two passageways leading to the subway platform where everyone was staying. One of them connected with the section where the previous outbreak had happened, and was subsequently blocked off. The other one led to a major intersection connecting all platforms with the concourse on the surface.

It was very likely they had already reached the main hallways, isolating everyone in the depths of the station. There were other ways to reach the surface down there, but it wouldn't be simple. The two of them had a direct path to the concourse though. They needed to take that chance as soon as possible. The shamblers were bound to pick up their trails soon.

"Wait!! My little sister is also in there...!!"

"T-They're taking care of her...!" yet another lie, the first one that came to his mind.

He wanted to at least help Nora, but by no means was he planning to wander into a rampaging horde to save anyone else. He had to drag her out by any means necessary. And if she kept insisting, he'd have to leave her behind, much to his dismay. The growls emanating from the depths escalated in volume at a rapid pace. Their time was up. He grabbed Nora's hand and started running towards the exit. She showed a certain degree of resistance, but she went along.

"S-Shit...!!"

******

Nora's subconscious still felt torn. She had done what she always did: fool herself. Bring up her tough façade, bury her emotions, and move on.

Lilian soothed her, and she was gone. Claire understood her, and she was gone. William gave her safety, and he was gone.

Yet she wasn't alone. That strange-looking man had showed up out of nowhere and offered her help. For all she knew, she might have signed her own death sentence the moment she accepted his offer, but what else was she supposed to do?

Steel yourself. Swallow your tears. Those dark thoughts in your mind? Cast them aside. Get up. Move. You have to. As long as there's still hope ahead, you must.

Nora engraved those words on her mind, over all the bottled emotions and insecurities. She only wanted to keep cowering down somewhere, to keep letting them take over her, break out without control. But it wasn't neither the place nor the moment to do so.

Her legs moved on their own, right after Desmond. Guided by the sloppy swaying of his flashlight, they retraced the steps she had initially taken to get into the subway station, ascending the tunnels towards the concourse. Turning corners, going up stairs, turning more corners... and finally, they saw weak droplets of sunlight falling upon the mechanical stairs of the entrance.